Yankees waiting on results of Hughes’ tests, more scheduled

Via Peter Botte and Marc Carig, Phil Hughes underwent four hours of medical examination today, including not one but two MRI’s (shoulder and elbow) as well as a series of vascular tests. The results, however, are not available yet, and in fact the right-hander is scheduled for even more tests tomorrow. Mark Feinsand reported last night that Hughes is going for a full body scan and the Yankees are concerned about a non-structural issue, such as an aneurysm. That would be bad, remember Ian Kennedy had one in 2009 and missed basically the entire season. Get well soon, Philbert.

I don’t think there is anything wrong with him. It’s his haircut, he had that flip thing in the back, like Joba does now. Joba all of a sudden found his velocity and location again, after the hair flippy thing in the back. Coincidence? I think not. He’s just not as aerodynamic.

It’s an unfortunate reality. I think the Yankees will do anything before they let a stud prospect just become junk, though.

/ignoringJoba

CP

Joba is reliable for 1-2 wins per season. That’s a valuable piece.

AC

Remember guys according to Phil he feels no pain and I hardly think at this point he’s hiding some serious pain in his shoulder or elbow or whatever. If something was torn or blown out as they say I think he’d feel something. This kid can’t go from 93-95 to barely hitting 89-90 overnight. Something is wrong. Let the doctors run there tests it seems as though this is the right move to make. Get him feeling n pitching better us the point. Come July Cashman will make a move for another arm we all know that. Colon n Garcia are hood so far

jorge brosada

Bartolo will be the World Series MVP, book it.

j

Maybe it’s like Space Jam and some alien stole his fastball to beat the Looney Toons in a game of baseball.

S

So that’s where Wainwright went, he didn’t get injured he’s being the MJ in looney toons land.

SAVE BUGS !!!

Dr. O

I heard Mo’s Turing Test went well though.

Sorry if this posts twice, lately RAB for me has been doing this thing where after submit comment it just sends me to the main page.

Ed

An aneurysm would be kinda crazy. I really can’t think of any pitchers that had one other than Cone and Kennedy, and Google isn’t helping me find others. 3 on the Yankees is just weird.

Nick

Tom Glavine had it.

Ed

Looks like they suspected Glavine of having an aneurysm, but it turned out to be a blood clot.

Just because I had a baby nine months ago doesn’t mean I’m having one now…

First time lawng time

That was a bad analogy.

Zangief Baby

Try the flipping coin analogy. However, that assumes we know the player’s true talent level though. We can guess it pretty well though.

If you flip heads 10 times straight, the odds of it being tails or heads is still only 50%.

That is, unless you’re being swindled at the bar by some jerk who hit on your girlfriend. Then your girlfriend was like that was a cute trick. Then you go to the bathroom and they are both gone when you get back. Jerk trick coin guy. I’ll punch him in the head.

Try the flipping coin analogy. However, that assumes we know the player’s true talent level though. We can guess it pretty well though.

For example, we can guess that 35 year old ARod’s true talent level probably isn’t the .346/.478/.750 he’s put up so far, and he’ll probably cool down at some point in the future–key word “probably”.

He’s not “due” to cool down, though, because you can’t pinpoint any date in advance where you can predict that his hot streak ends and his cold streak begins. He might stay hot all year. He might stay hot forever.

Players are often likely to perform better or worse than their current levels over the larger future sample to be played, but they’re not due to perform better or worse. Being due is a much more imminent and predictable phenomenon that’s not logically functional.

First time lawng time

Oh. When I say due, I mean something (like players’ averages for example) I mean that it won’t happen on a given date. I mean that it probably will regress/improve to be in line career numbers, because things USUALLY even out and it’s unlikely for things to sustain themselves without changing one way or another. I’m not saying something will automatically change, just that it’s likely that it will, because almost nothing stays the same consistently.

CS Yankee

BTW, congrats!

Mike

Just like David Cone (?)

Bob Stone

Cone recovered pretty effectively from his aneurysm.

Poopy Pants

The answer:
Bad mechanics. He’s sore from doing it the wrong way (he said it feels like someone punched him in the shoulder). You fix it by fixing the mechanics, not by sitting around or resting.

http://twitter.com/steveh_MandAura Steve H

If true, you at least want him to stop being sore before fixing the mechanics though.

Though Al Lieter did a great job explaining it to Kay last night although Kay wasn’t listening W.A.S…

Kay: “no, Hughes says like it feels like someone punch him kind of sore, thats not dead-arm”

Al: “yes, that’s exactly how it feels when you have dead-arm. I’ve been though it a few times”

Kay: “have you ever had dead-arm though?”

Al: “yes!”

Kay: “it doesn’t feel like a punch though?”

Al: “YES, it does”

Kay fail.

Ted Nelson

Have you actually spotted something in his mechanics, or are you saying that every time someone has a sore shoulder it’s necessarily mechanical?

Greg

Again, this go back to the fact for me that the Yankess have not really developed quality starting pitching for themselves in the past 10 years. Whichever ones thay do either get injured (Wang, Hughes) or are traded away (Westbrook, Ohlendorf) Here is a quote
Yankee Starting Pitcher Development Strategy:

1. Draft collegiate starter with early-round draft pick.
2. After dominating minors as a starter, make into reliever.
3. Remind reliever that he is a starter.
4. Make reliever into reliever/starter.
5. Remind reliever/starter that he is a starter.
6. Make reliever/starter into starter.
7. Remind starter that he is a starter.
7. Make starter into reliever.
8. Tell reliever that he is now a reliever.

OK ERA but doesnt get wind because he plays on the Pirates. You could use Al Leiter, but that was in the 80s. You could say Ted Lilly because he only pitched in 9 games for Montreal before he was traded, so his development might have been still going on.

Ted Nelson

Hughes getting injured and/or ineffective (who knows what it is at this point…) goes back to the entire drafting and pitcher development strategy of the organization?

CS Yankee

Plus the Wang mis-development.

It is clear to everyone that they did not develop him on running the bases safely.

Greg

I’m not putting blame on them for the injuries. It’s just what I see. It might just be bad luck

Ted Nelson

I would go back even further to the Brien Taylor mis-development… pacifism or self-defense with the non-pitching arm…

Or the Prior, Felix, and Cole mis-developments… got to teach them cursive to sign their names.

Curiousity only so don’t all kill me at once. Are you guys saying there is no skill in developing pitchers or no skill in avoiding injury?

Are you guys saying trying to develop pitchers are pointless? or are you guys saying injuries are unavoidable?

Why the luck assertion. Serious question.

CS Yankee

Technically, an “X” is a legal signature.

This could of happened with booze, women, or broken bones…actually, any combo would have worked as well.

/noexcuses’d

CS Yankee

The Dodgers, Giants, Marlins and a few others have all done well developing starters…they have not done well developing players however.

The NYY have done well in selecting pitching talent I feel, what has escaped them is having them stick in NY while being injury free. So, to stick you must be good and the Yankees are stuck with trying to win this year every year versus taking their lumps with the 5th spot. If the 5th spot has 25 starts and a kid will be 50/50 and the team might win 14 of them versus a vet (that has no future with the org.) might be 55/45 and equate to 15-16 team wins.

Hopefully this most recent talent of having 7-10 decent/possible-great arms in AA/AAA will net fruit, only time will tell.

Ted Nelson

Yeah, they weren’t always the greatest rotations but when you have 5 or even 6 strong veteran starters there’s not much room to promote borderline prospects. For a team like the Yankees under MLB’s rules, borderline rotation candidates are often best used as trade bait.

In discussing this I think the first thing to do is establish a baseline of what we should realistically expect. What have the best teams (at amateur pitcher acquisition + development) done in the last 10 years (if that’s our time frame… which is small if we’re talking about development starting in the last 10 years vs. guys reaching the majors in the last 10)? What is “good?” What is average?”

Then, of course, what have the Yankees done. Wang, Claussen (= Aaron Boone), Hughes, Marquez (= roughly 1/3 Nick Swisher), Karstens & McCutchen (1/2 Nady + Marte), IPK (roughly 1/3 of Granderson), Aceves, Vizcaino (Javy…), Jason Arnold (part of Weaver deal, who was then dealt for Kevin Brown), Joba, Nova… have all already paid dividends to one extent or another. There are a bunch more prospects in the minors right now who could pay dividends going forward.

I don’t know where that puts the Yankees relative to the pack. It would be great to have developed more top notch starters and gotten more out of the guys who looked like they might be. They’ve developed a fair number of starting candidates, though, and done a pretty good job of getting trade value out of the ones who never worked out anyway. That’s not all skill, as the system is set up for the Yankees to be able to basically buy talent if they wish to do so.
I guess the big thing is that I don’t think one ace is the way to judge a system. It’s a huge coup for the org to develop one from an amateur, but if you have that same list with one ace thrown in does that really change anything about the actual scouting and development system the Yankees employed? Just one signature on the dotted line from Prior, Hernandez, or Cole (all of whom the Yankees attempted to sign as amateurs) would change the quality of their system? I agree it would change the results drastically, but it’s basically luck. (And of course Prior would probably just add to the negative perception if he comes here and his shoulder goes…)

Also, since 2004 it’s been a different story. While people are disappointed in Hughes, Joba, and IPK… you’re talking 3 1sts in 3 years (2004 and 2 in 2006) that became MLB pitchers… very good for where the Yankees were drafting. Plus all the talent in the system now.

The Big City of Dreams

“Hopefully this most recent talent of having 7-10 decent/possible-great arms in AA/AAA will net fruit, only time will tell.”

More than likely it won’t because they’ll get injured, they’ll get traded, or the Yankees will give up on them.

People forget that some people bodies can’t play the long season of baseball. Phil Hughes like Wang has been on the disable list nearly every year since he’s been here. Bad luck or injury plagued it’s something.